A 7.4-magnitude earthquake tore through Colombia's coffee-growing heartland on Monday, killing at least 164 people and leveling roughly 1,600 buildings, and a new president barely three days into office now faces his first crisis.
Rescue workers pulled a six-month-old baby and her mother from the wreckage of a collapsed building hours after the quake struck early on August 10, 2026. The mother emerged covered in blood and dust. In Cali, Colombia's third-largest city, volunteers dug through concrete and rebar with sticks and bare hands while hospitals overflowed into the streets. In Pereira, the capital of Risaralda state, entire residential blocks lay in ruins.
The earthquake, centered near the town of San Jose Del Palmar in the remote Choco region, registered at a depth of roughly 68 miles, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The agency attributed the tremor to movement along a deep fault within the Nazca tectonic plate. Shaking reached the capital, Bogota, some 250 miles to the east, where residents rushed into the streets in pajamas. The tremor was also felt in neighboring Ecuador and Panama.
The death toll climbed throughout the day. Authorities in Pereira reported 66 dead. Cali's toll remained in dispute: the article body of initial reporting placed the city's dead at 85 or more, while President Abelardo de la Espriella told journalists Monday evening that 35 had died in Cali, with 188 still missing. The gap between those figures was not explained. Across the country, at least 13 people died in Choco, the rural province closest to the epicenter.
The Washington Examiner reported a higher overall toll, at least 213 dead, with more than 3,000 missing, citing updated figures as the scope of the disaster widened. AP News described the quake as the strongest recorded in Colombia in the 21st century.
In Cali, a city of roughly 2.2 million, a hospital lost several upper floors, including pediatric wards. Some 600 patients had to be treated on the street outside. Dozens of buildings leaned or lay in piles of rubble. Volunteer rescue worker Nelson Moreno described what he saw when he arrived:
"Getting here was unbelievable. It felt like the end of the world, cars and motorcycles driving the wrong way, everyone searching for their loved ones."
Moreno called for flashlights and goggles so his team could keep working through the night. Another volunteer, Andres Felipe Mejia, said civilians had shown up in force: "A lot of people have come, with supplies, with food, helping the firefighters, helping the people."
In Pereira, tattoo artist Andres Hernandez was asleep when the ground began to move. He told AFP the scene outside resembled a movie: poles and cables swaying, structures on the verge of collapse. Resident Juan David Gaitan told reporters the city had lost power and looked like "a zombie city."
Carmen Yasmin Garcia, a 43-year-old Cali resident, joined a volunteer crew that freed seven people from a single collapsed building by Monday afternoon. Four others and a dog were still buried beneath the debris. Garcia described the grim shift from hope to silence:
"A moment ago there was scratching but now we can't hear anything, we still have faith that the dog is alive and we can get these people out."
She pleaded for more help: "We need people with sticks and spades, the more people lending a hand the better." The scene repeated itself across the region. In the small town of El Cairo, not far from the epicenter, 80 percent of the buildings, in a community of roughly 7,000, sustained damage. Dana Carolina Zamora posted an image of her missing 60-year-old uncle, Miguel Ángel Zamora, a farmer who had been living in a rural area near El Cairo. She had heard nothing from him.
"We are afraid. We hope that is not the case, that he is all right and that it is only a communication failure. But we haven't heard anything from him."
In Quibdo, the capital of Choco, one of Colombia's poorest provinces, much of it accessible only by boat, jungle trail, or airplane, law student Wilmer Cuesta recalled the panic: "People ran out naked, people jumped from the second floor of their homes." Local dentist Julian Pena told AFP he ran outside carrying nothing. "People were praying in the street. It was overwhelming."
Local official Jenny Rivas said public services and communications in the area "have been virtually shut down." The region has long been one of Latin America's most neglected corridors, and the quake exposed just how fragile its infrastructure remains.
De la Espriella was sworn in as Colombia's president just the Friday before the earthquake. He declared a state of emergency, mobilized what he called "the entire military and police apparatus," and deployed engineers, rescue workers, and search dogs to the hardest-hit areas. By Monday night he had traveled personally to Quibdo to assess the damage in Choco.
"Choco will never again be the 'land of the forgotten,'" de la Espriella said. He announced rental subsidies for residents whose homes were damaged and ordered 1,000 security forces to Cali by dawn after reports of looting surfaced Monday night. Curfews went into effect in both Cali and Pereira.
Fox News reported that de la Espriella framed the government response in broad terms: "The national government has all of its capabilities deployed to protect lives, assist affected communities and deliver aid wherever it is needed. The first priority is rescuing the people trapped under the rubble."
De la Espriella also struck a tone of unity, telling journalists: "Our intention is to cooperate in any way necessary. Here, there are no distinctions or ideological divisions when it comes to defending our people or showing solidarity." The sentiment is notable for a leader described as having pledged a crackdown on criminal groups, a stance that made him a polarizing figure before the quake forced the country's attention elsewhere.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the Trump administration was "closely monitoring" the earthquake and that the United States "stands ready to support the people of Colombia." The State Department announced $15.5 million in emergency funding for shelter, food, and other aid. Just The News noted that the quake struck at 7:34 a.m. local time and that Colombia's Geological Service called it the highest-magnitude earthquake in the country in the last decade.
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas posted on X that the bloc had activated its Copernicus satellite service to support rescue operations and was providing funding through the Red Cross. The EU also triggered its crisis consular assistance mechanism to help European citizens caught in the disaster. Israel, Mexico, Ecuador, and France each offered assistance, though details of their commitments were not immediately specified.
Colombian pop star Shakira posted a public call for unity: "All my strength and love to my homeland. Let's hold each other tight." At least six airports across the country suspended operations for structural inspections, and hospitals in five Colombian cities went on red alert.
The disaster landed in a region with painful seismic history. A 1999 earthquake in the same coffee-growing belt killed more than 1,000 people. And in neighboring Venezuela, catastrophic quakes in June killed more than 6,300, a toll that exposed deep failures in that country's infrastructure and emergency preparedness.
In Manizales, the tower of a historic cathedral cracked apart. Footage from an unspecified airport showed ceiling panels collapsing during the shaking. Across the affected region, buildings that remained standing bore visible gaps and cracks. Pena described the landscape bluntly: "There are many buildings with gaps, with cracks. There are others that have completely collapsed."
The scale of the missing remains staggering. De la Espriella cited 188 unaccounted for in Cali alone. The Washington Examiner's updated figures put the national total above 3,000 missing. Whether those numbers overlap with confirmed fatalities remained unclear as rescue teams worked through the night.
Major earthquakes have struck the broader region with increasing frequency. Japan faced a magnitude 7.1 earthquake earlier this year that killed at least 18 and sparked its own desperate search for survivors. Each disaster carries the same lesson: when the ground moves, the quality of what governments built, and failed to build, determines who lives and who dies.
For now, the work in Colombia is measured in hours and hands. Volunteers like Garcia and Moreno do not have heavy equipment. They have sticks, spades, and whatever light they can find. The baby pulled from the rubble on Monday was six months old. Her survival, and the survival of everyone still buried under concrete across the region, depends on ordinary people showing up before the silence becomes permanent.
Colombia's new president got three days in office before the earth reminded him that promises are cheap and rubble is real. What he builds next, literally and otherwise, will define whether this disaster becomes a turning point or just another chapter in a long history of neglect.
